Shark

Shark

Friday 1 August 2008 18.59 EDT
First published on Friday 1 August 2008 18.59 EDT

Sharks have got a bad press: they're not much interested in humans, finding them a bit stringy and bony. In any case, Crawford points out, bees and dogs kill many more people every year than sharks do. Still, despite his protestations, the notorious eating of many American sailors by sharks after the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in 1945 hardly sounds less horrible than subsequent fictive exaggerations of the incident. Crawford explains well the variety (454 species) and wondrous biology of sharks (the great white has electrical sensors that can detect a heartbeat); traces sharks nicely through myth and fiction, holding in view Moby-Dick, Jaws and the novels of Hemingway; and outlines the politics of aquaria and shark-fin soup.

The pictures are breathtaking, too: a photograph from below a swarm of hammerheads for a moment makes you think you are looking at airborne aliens.